Hi all,

We have had a great week in Slovakia. On Wednesday we flew to Kosice in the eastern part of Slovakia for a Wheelchair closing ceremony. We stayed in a lovely Hotel on the main square of Kosice which was established in the 12^th century. It is a beautiful city which was not destroyed at all in the war so the beautiful architecture has been preserved. The main square is approximately 2 kilometers long with several parks including one with a beautiful water fountain orchestrated to music. On the square is found the most eastern Catholic Cathedral in Europe. It is in Romanesque style architecture, and it is beautiful. There are several other beautiful churches as well in the City.

This cathedral is on the main street of Kosice, a beautiful 2 Km pedestrian street

Thursday, we drove two hours to the eastern border of Slovakia to the city of Bezovce. The Ceremony was in the School Gym. It was attended by the Mayor and the Slovakian minister of Social work, both acknowledged how much humanitarian aid the church has given to help the Slovakian People. It was also attended by the Mission President and his wife, 12 missionaries’ and 20 recipients and their families. 500 Wheelchairs will be distributed to people who are mobile challenged. The wheelchairs will enable these people to get out of their homes and interact in society. The Program was orchestrated by a special lady who heads up a nongovernmental organization dedicated to helping people with handicaps. Her organization assembled all the names of the recipients and distributed the chairs the church provided. Those who received chairs and their families were very appreciative. Several of the officials spoke and the missionaries sang I am a child of God accompanied by the senior missionary couple on the Guitar.

Look at the lovily countenance of this sweet little girl

This little guy could only walk aided by someone or very slowly with a walker

Look at that smile! Life has just become much better for him

The lady who organized the program to distribute the wheelchairs and conducted the ceremony was in a lot of back pain and was scheduled for back surgery on the 2nd of Aug. I asked if she had been offered a priesthood blessing, which she had not. I had one of the young elders ask her if should like a blessing and she said yes. We went into a room with her daughter, and one of the young elders who spoke Slovakian anointed her, and another sealed the anointing and gave her a blessing. The next day this lady called one of our interpreters who is also a member of the church, and told her that the blessing had been an amazing experience for her. She said a peaceful calm feeling came over her,and she wasn't worried any more about the operation. The next morning when she awoke the pain was gone. She doesn't understand how the blessing did this, but she knows that what happened is real and not just in her mind. Sunday in church was a wonderful spiritual experience as well, there is a lot of love among the members in this small branch. There were 5 nonmembers in attendance, and they could feel that loving feeling as well.

Sat. we had the opportunity to do a little sightseeing and drove to an old fortress that was started in 1269 by the Celts. Over the course of 500 hundred years it was enlarged and beautified. The view from the top of the watchman's tower was amazing, we could see for miles in all directions,and in each direction there were 3 or 4 small villages one behind the other. I'll send of picture of the fortress with this blog.

This is Spiss Casltle and Fortress with an awesome view from the top of the tower

Traveling is one of the blessing of this calling, which so far has required 11 to 13 hour days 5 days a week and work on Sat.and Sun. as well. But I figure on Sun. it's OK to work because we're doing the Lord's work (no we don't skip church to work ). In Sept. we will drive to Hungary via Vienna, and return to Frankfurt via Berchtesgaden. In Budapest we will be organizing another wheelchair project to distribute 500 wheelchairs plus walkers and crutches, we will also check on a food and nutrition project that is about 2 years old now.

We have been having trouble with the blogging, and so our blogs a been sparse, but we think we have the bugs worked out and can blog much easier now and therfore we'll be able to blog more consistently. We love you and wish God's blessings for you. Oma and Opa

Back in the office

Dear All,
We flew all night on Monday and got into the Frankfurt airport about 1 P.M. From the airport we took the train and the street car back to the office. It is a irrelatively easy proceedure and very cost effective. We stopped in the office just to let them know we were back, and didn't get our of there until 7:00. In the office we learned that we needed to move which we did Weds. night only to learn that there is a lot of uncertainty about the apartment situation. It seem that the church is going to end there lease on 3 apartments, and which 3 apartments to give up is constantly in flux. So we were asked to move again on Thurs. night, then on Fri. we were invited to move again, but that can move can wait until we get back from Slovakia. At this moment we see just 2 more moves in our future, one next week and then the final move (we hope) in about a month. So that will be 4 moves in 2 months. We started on the 9th floor, then to the 5th, then to the 7th, and we hope the move to the 10th floor will be our final move. We are still working 60-70 hours a week, but tonight Susan left the office at 6:00 and I follow shortly thereafter at 6:15 That reduced our day in the office by about 1 1/2 hours. We are beginning to see progress in learning our job. The stressful part is that there are 9 other couples that have to rely on us to do our job so we can get them the money they need to live and do their jobs. They are wonderful dedicated couples who really do some good for the people of the country in which they live. For example we are working with the couple in Moldova who are helping the victims of a flood with food and trying to get these families bedding. Because there is so much corruption in in their village this couple are trying desperately to get the beds constructed so they can distribute them before they return home in 6 weeks. That way the beds will get to the intended families and not be diverted into the black market. Our trip to Slovakia is to participate in the distribution of wheelchairs, some of the recipients have been waiting for several years to get a wheelchair. Until the have a means of getting around they are relegated to their apartments. Once mobile they can start to interact in society, see friends and families, see the city, have a much fuller life. Being able to be envolved in helping others in such a significant way is very rewarding, and also makes one grateful for many things we just take for granted. We get up in the morning and walk to wherever and don't think twice about it, unless we grumble about having to walk. These people get up and either lay or sit there that's it, and the routine is the same day after day. I think we need to count our blessings more.
We don't have a car so we walk a lot when we go someplace, but everything is so compact here that distances seem smaller. Walked to the bank today which is 1 1/2 miles each way and didn't think twice about it. Back home I wouldn't even considered walking to the bank although it is about the same distance. Interesting how our enviroment has such an influence on us, which we don't even realize. We have been so busy that we didn't take the intended pictures of the office to show you, so no pictures this week ,but next week we'll have some interesting picture to put on the blog. Remember gratitude is a virtue we all should strive to develop. We love you all and pray for you daily, Oma and Opa Leonard

Experiences in the Cape Verde Island of St Vicente

Dear All,

This week we have been on the Cape Verde Island of St Vicente in the city of Mindelo. This is the 2^nd largest city (about 70,000) in this small group of 10 islands off the Atlantic coast of Africa. The islands are midway between Lisbon, Portugal and Brazil, with flying time to Portugal or Brazil being about 4 hours. The islands are only 16 degrees north of the equator and were formed by volcanic action. The islands were uninhabited until the 15^th century when they became a holding location for the Portuguese slave industry. The island of St Vicente wasn’t inhabited until approximately the middle 1800’s and the people are a mixture of Portuguese and African descent.(See video at the end of the Blog)

We have spent five days with Elder and Sister Dennis and Janet Broderick, the Welfare Humanitarian Missionaries assigned. Together we have visited project sites were the church will provide water to homes that have no running water.

These people are very poor and can’t afford to have water piped into their homes, and must walk to a central water point to purchase water and then carry it back to their home.

The homes are generally very small 2 to 3 room dwelling, and consist of a small living room, 1bedroom for the family and a kitchen with a dirt floor.

The church will pay the cost of the pipe and hookup fee for a line with a faucet to the house. These people were so grateful to think that someone would pay so they could have running water to their home. The church plans to initially provide a water line to 550 homes.

We also visited a neighborhood health clinic and spoke with the young Doctor who is trying desperately to educate the people on basic health and hygiene principles. The clinic’s goal is to prevent the spread of disease and treat minor injuries and provide Pre and Post natal care for mothers and their infants. They also provide free medications for illnesses. There is a high incidence of Diabetes and cardiovascular disease here that they treat.

Friday night and Saturday we were with church members. They are a very loving people and portray a strong feeling of caring and love for each other. As they learn and apply gospel principles you can see their lives change for the better, the peace and happiness reflected in their faces is wonderful to see. Today in church we could not understand what they said but you could feel the spirit and see it reflected in many faces. It is a wonderful thing to witness the teachings of Jesus Christ changing lives and making people happier and more content.

We went to the fish market Friday morning to get fish for our dinner. We got 4 pounds of fresh Tuna for 8 dollars. This was fun. and the the Tuna steaks were wonderful.

Week Two in Germany

Hello everyone,
This is our second week and we were in the city of Jihlava Czech Republoic, We were here to train the Pages who are the humanitarian couple in Czech. They are the 1st humanitarian couple in Czech so in their own way they are pioneers. The Picture is of the Pages, behind them are the Coltons whom we are replacing, mom, and the full time elders in the city. Our week of training was cut short because the Pages learned everything very fast, and had a zone conference to attend on Friday. So we drove home on Friday afternoon, which only take about 6 1/2 hrs. This enabled Elder Colton and me to go into the office and do some of the paper work that is ever present. This calling is all done with computers, which is a huge learning curve for. Mom is much more computer literate than me, so she is doing better and assimulating faster than me. But slowly I am learning (old but still able to learn).

Elder Colton doing the training, the Pages absorbing, me working at it

Elder Page and I in the city square of Jihlava. This town was established in about 1200 AD. As the residence were digging basments they discovered Silver, and the city quickly became the economic center of Czech. There are 25 Kilometers of tunnels from the mining days under this city

This is a typical street in the city of Prague ( the Czech spell it Praha) How we get Prague out of this I don't know. There was only minimal destruction of the city in WWII, so it still possesses it's old world charm. This picture was taken about 9:30 PM
Our first 4 days in Germany were spent being introduced to the many computer responsibilites we now have, which totally overwhelmed me. I am just now beginning to get a feel for some of the programs, which is encouraging. Susan keeps telling me and she is right that I must allow myself time to learn these programs. In 23 months my computer skills will improve exponentially. We still do not have a permanent place to stay, we are in an apt. but it is only temporary until the end of the month when our apt. is supposed to be ready for us to move in. That will help us feel more settled. And hopefully I will keep seeing my skills improve.
It is nice to be back in Germany, we have enjoyed some nice walks and have only been rained on a few times. Because of the frequent rains everything here is green,beautiful and clean.
We'll continue with blogging later this week. We love you all

This was our last week at MTC. We fly to Germany tomorrow morning, leaving here at 5 am and arriving in Frankfurt on Tuesday, the 14th at 7:20am. You can see us trying to show the area of our responsibility. This week training has centered more welfare and humanitarian services, and it will be a real opportunity to help other people. We didn't realize how much the church is doing throughout the world to aid and help others. However the church's focus is not to give aid, but rather to give aid that can be sustained and be on going. It truly is a program to help others become self reliant, and then in turn to help others become self reliant. The scope of the aid is amazing and impressive. The Brodericks left for the Cape Verde islands on Friday, and the Pages leave for the Czech Republic. We have received an email that both have arrived safely. We have enjoyed the all missionaries we have met here, all very accomplished in their fields and a lot of fun to be with. I foresee us remaining in contact with them for a long time to come.
We had a special treat this morning when Holly called and ask if she could stop by on her way with her friends to Long Beach CA. Our visit was short ,but great she is a special little person.

Week One The adventure begins!!!!!!

Monday, May 30th 2011, we entered the MTC with 5 full size suitcases containing everything we need for the next two years (we hope), from clothing to vitamins. Our room, though comfortable is training us how to live in a confined space. After a wonderful weekend spent with John's family, Dick and Lucille brought us to the MTC in two vehicles-Holy Cow.

We checked in a 10 am and after lunch began orientation and classes. Our day begins at 5am walking our usual 2 miles and ends about 8 pm after our 2 hour language training class.

This week we have focused on learning how to teach and share the gospel of Jesus Christ. There are approximately 34 senior couples and 4 single sisters in our group which has been divided into 9 districts of 8 missionaries each. Below is a picture of our district with our young trainer Sister Street. Sister Street was a wonderful instructor.
Seating left to right: Carey and Bryon Barnard, Larry and Joyce Sprouse
Standing: Jean Stucki, Kolleen Taylor, Sister Street, Us

We have met two of the couples we will be working with in Europe. They are wonderful people.

From Left to Right: Dennis and Janet Broderick , they will be serving in the Cape Verde Islands; on our left are Karen and Brian Page, they will be serving in the Czech Republic.

We have had a marvelous week enjoying spiritual messages that have been given in our classes and meetings, and have felt the influence of the Holy Ghost. As we went to our first simulated teaching experience, we taught a lady who shared with us a significant spiritual experience in which it was confirmed to her that she is a daughter of God and that He loves her. She told us she has not shared this experience with others here at the MTC, but felt prompted to share it with us. So Our first teaching experience became a listening experience and a very special and sacred experience. She gave us her address and phone number and asked us to keep in contact with her during our mission.

On Friday evening we had a testimony meeting with 15 other couples who are learning a foreign language in which everyone had the opportunity to share their testimony in the language they were learning. Both John and I shared our testimonies in German. This was my first time to share my testimony in German. I was really scared but with the help of the spirit it went well.
For John, the language just flowed, he only had to think about the concepts he wanted to express.

We surely have had our own testimonies strengthened. We know that Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ are real, that Joseph Smith was a prophet and that the Book of Mormon is true.

Next week our training will center on welfare and humanitarian services.
We love you all, Oma and Opa